Fort McMurray played host to 8 different zones which make up the province of Alberta for the 2018 Alberta Winter Games.
Hailey Kenney and Madison Wheeler of Rockyford area attended the games under Zone 2 which consists of Cochrane, Strathmore, and Rockyford to name a few.
The girls won bronze for their hard work on the ice. The score was 8 – 3 against Zone 3.
“You are winning but obviously in the end it would have been better to win silver or gold but it was super exciting knowing that out of all those teams we were in the top three and coming home with a medal,” said Kenney.
They played three round robin games where they lost the first game by one point but caught up and won the next two. The team became second in the pool so they then crossed over and played the first place team, Edmonton, in the other pool. Zone 2 lost 5 – 4 that game in overtime. The outcome of the game moved the Edmonton team into the gold medal game and the Zone 2 team into the bronze medal game.
“It was really close because the team that won gold, we lost to in overtime and the team that won silver we lost to by one,” said Kenney.
The weekend was filled with different things to witness and experience. Kenney had multiple favourites.
“Definitely the games because they were so close and exciting but also all the time you spend with your teammates,” said Kenney.
Alexandre Bilodeau, an Olympic Canadian Freestyle Skier emceed to kick off the opening ceremonies.
All athletes were on a strict schedule throughout the weekend. Buses would shuffle teams and individuals to the appropriate location throughout the day.
“We all stayed in Athlete Villages which are schools and all the Ringette teams are in one school and even the one day, we played at 12:30 p.m. but they have everyone up at the same time.”
